EDITORIAL | Withholding your vote won’t fix broken services or restore trust

It is difficult to blame South Africans for losing faith in politicians. After years of broken promises, corruption and municipalities that struggle to deliver even the most basic services, many people are asking themselves what the point of voting is.

Why vote when the taps are dry, the rubbish is piling up and the roads are falling apart? Why trust politicians who suddenly remember their communities when an election is around the corner, only to disappear once the votes have been counted?

These are fair questions. And political parties should be worried that so many people are asking them.

But as South Africans prepare to head to the polls on November 4, there is another question worth considering: what happens when we give up on voting altogether?

The frustration is understandable. But not voting will not make those problems disappear.

Staying away from the ballot box might feel like a way of punishing politicians who have let us down. For some, it is a deliberate decision to reject a political system they no longer trust. For others, it comes from the belief that their vote will make little difference to the problems they face every day.

The frustration is understandable. But not voting will not make those problems disappear.

Local government has a direct impact on people’s lives. It determines whether communities receive reliable services, whether municipal money is spent properly and whether those entrusted with running our towns and cities are doing their jobs.

The people elected to municipal councils will make decisions that affect residents long after the election posters have been taken down.

If we are unhappy with how our municipalities are being run, elections give us an opportunity to say so. We can vote out parties that have failed us and give others a chance to prove that they can do better.

Of course, voting is not a magic solution. A party that wins an election can still disappoint its supporters. Promises made on the campaign trail do not always translate into better services. And changing the people in charge does not automatically fix a broken municipality.

That is why voting must go hand in hand with holding elected leaders accountable. Politicians should not be allowed to treat public support as a blank cheque, and voters should demand answers when promises are broken.

Political parties also need to understand that they cannot blame voter apathy without confronting what has caused it. People will not suddenly regain faith in democracy because politicians tell them to vote. Trust must be earned.

South Africans have every right to be angry and disappointed. But abandoning the ballot box risks handing more power to those who do turn up to vote.

Our politicians may have given us plenty of reasons to lose faith in them. We should not allow their failures to make us give up our own power.